Plan for the present
The lesson of today seems to be to live in the present. I worry. A lot. The worry stems from things possibly in the future. Or the past. But I need to learn to live in the present.
Dwelling on the past causes me to overthink and clutter my mind with worry. I have also lived for the future, but that alone is a huge question mark. I’ve become stubborn and disappointed when I live for the future.
I have to live in the present. I can’t worry about what happened or what’s going to possibly happen. The present tells us everything we need to know. I get lost in thinking. I get lost in looking for clues or predictions about the future. Thinking can busy my mind so much I miss the present.
One word that I struggle with–control. I wish I learned four years ago when the car crash happened, I worry about things I cannot control. Or a lot of worry are things I don’t know about because it’s in the future. Should I have worried about “what if I end up in a coma tomorrow, the day before the car crash?” No. Why?
I would’ve missed living in the present.
This strain of thinking creates a neural pathway that I no longer need in my brain. So I take a deep breath in for seven seconds, hold for four, exhale for eleven.
To declutter my thinking, I have learned to breathe. If I focus on counting in the moment of nothing, then I distract my mind from whatever my worry was.
I lose sight of “what’s next?” because I am too busy planning ahead. I’ll think of “what’s next next, then what’s next next next.” Instead, I need to plan for the present.
I struggle enjoying the moment because the clouds of the past and future roll in. What ifs start to roll around. Or even “I know if I do this, then this happens.”
Something great could be right in front of me, but I miss it because I’m overthinking.
I need to focus on the now.